SUMMARY: Ever wondered what it is like to market a Broadway show? Here is a fascinating behind-the-scenes story, including results.
This is a must-read if you are involved in grassroots community-based efforts, or you are hoping to learn more about how to approach the Asian American demographic.

"There's a huge amount of pre-marketing to a Broadway show. PR, publicity, community-building, advertising, marketing. You want to be 'A Hit' before you even hit Broadway," explains Jeff Yang, President of Factor Inc.

Revivals of past hits have some of that buzz already built into them. Unfortunately, Flower Drum Song could not take advantage of that because originally in 1960 it was only a "moderate success."

Plus, as Yang explains, "It was progressive for its time, but it was very White, very much a period piece. So, while it was groundbreaking, it was also a little weird. Most people had forgotten about it except as a quaint anachronism."

The show's producers saved the great Rogers & Hammerstein music, but canned the lame story in favor of a 100% revised version that both Whites and Asians could enjoy. Now they just had to convince potential audiences of that, before the show even opened.

While no Broadway show can survive on minority ticket sales alone, the producers definitely wanted to invest in targeting the Asian-American community.

Data shows that while 3% of theatergoers in New York are Asian American, for high-affinity productions such as Miss Saigon this increased to more than 10%. So the producers decided to invest 10% of their overall $1.4 million marketing budget into targeting Asian Americans, and see what happened.

CAMPAIGN

"Asian Americans respond to viral marketing more than any other kind of marketing," says Yang whose agency was chosen to conduct the campaign.

"There isn't an Asian American I know who doesn't have a personal email list of at least 80 to several thousand friends, contacts and relatives. There's strong internal network in the community."

Although prototypical Broadway marketing is based on big media spends, making the most of community-based viral buzz, especially via the Internet and email, became the foundation of Yang's team's five-step plan:

-> Step #1 - Launching online 5 months before the show

Realizing that a great site could be the touchstone for all other marketing efforts, first the team put together a site that featured: - The hot pink and red colors that infused all show marketing - Exclusive interviews with cast members - Rehearsal (and later back-stage) snapshots - Updates on cast member appearances at NY-area events - Space for links to Asian American community groups Yang's team hoped would endorse the show

Most critically, the site was easy to update, and Yang's team built it with the express purpose of being able to update it and drive traffic there repeatedly until people bought their tickets. It was not the frozen-brochureware site so many entertainment companies produce.

Naturally, the site offered an email newsletter. However, surprisingly the email newsletter was text-only.

Yang explains, "We wanted people to grab it and forward it to all their friends, and when you forward HTML from many email systems, it becomes a garbled mess."

Plus, if you make your HTML email too pretty, what is the point of going back to a site to view more? Yang felt if you are trying to get someone to take action at your site, you have to use the newsletter as a teaser only.

-> Step #2 - Initial buzz building at a big community event

Every May, more than 14,000 people attend the Asian Pacific American Heritage Festival in Manhattan. This giant street fair is the largest gathering of Asian Americans on the East Coast.

Yang says, "It's like Asian Woodstock."

It was the perfect place to start buzz-building for the show. The team created and manned a five-person exhibit featuring the history of Asians on Broadway. While the upcoming show was mentioned, the team felt their booth would be more compelling if it were educational and broad-focused rather than overtly promotional.

Plus, they had the killer app: A hot pink t-shirt emblazoned on the front with the title of Flower Drum Song's most famous song, "I enjoy being a girl."

"It was the coolest t-shirt," says Yang. "We sold them for really cheap, and held a drawing every half hour to give away a couple. Also, if we saw any pretty Asian celebrities, we give them shirts on condition that they wear them."

"Everybody was wearing these things, all these attractive young women, and a few gay men. You'd see this and wonder, 'what is it?' and then see the Flower Drum Song logo on the back. So, a lot of people came to our booth and signed up for our newsletter."

(Link to photo of t-shirts below.)

-> Step #3 - "Leadership Lunches" targeting top influencers

Next, in early July the team held a series of three Leadership Lunches for influential Asian-Americans in the Manhattan area.

Invited guests included journalists, business leaders, political leaders and the leaders of Asian American membership organizations such as the head of the New York Chinese Cultural Center. "We picked organizations that had a minimum of 300 members on their mailing lists," noted Yang.

Each of the lunches was held at a carefully-chosen pan-Asian restaurant. One was for Chinese-Americans, one for Filipinos and one for the general pan-Asian community. Yang's team invited 50 leaders to each and about 30 showed. He notes everyone who did not show was out of town that week or stuck in a meeting they could not get out of.

The draw was the chance to meet the stars of the show in person (female lead Lea Salonga, in particular, is very famous in the community).

During the hour and a half-long lunch, attendees viewed presentations "about why the new production was important to our community, why it would be something wonderful." Then each attendee was asked to become a Friend of Flower Drum Song.

Yang explains, "They weren't just primed to see the show themselves, but to evangelize it to the community."

How exactly? Read on.

-> Step #4 - Tying ticket sales to community fundraising

Yang's team got the show's producers to agree to let them offer $95 tickets for five "Community Preview Nights" for just $65 to Asian American non-profit membership organizations.

To qualify, each organization had to agree to buy a block of at least 50 tickets at the special price, but they could sell them for any price they wanted. Many did, using the extra funds generated to help their organizations.

The cast of Flower Drum Song pitched in to help as well, agreeing to drop in as celebrity guests at special post-show parties being held for Community ticket holders on those five nights.

For groups that had email member lists, Yang's team provided an eVite-powered viral marketing campaign to help them sell tickets by sending emails that linked to online ticket order forms.

For groups that just had snail mail lists, Yang's team provided graphics templates for flyers and postcard mailers they could insert their info into easily prior to mailing.

"We sent them an EPS, all they had to do was pop in their organization's name and print it out and photocopy it. We're not talking high-end collateral here," notes Yang. "The main thing was to get the invite into the hands of members." (Link to sample creative below.)

Every participating group was added to the show's Web site so surfers could pick the group of their choice to buy a ticket through. The site began to help the Asian American community fundraise for itself.

The five Community nights took place during the preview performances of the show. Then the show formally launched in New York and the critics weighed in.

-> Step 5: Keep the show alive through the winter

Although the show was nominated for three Tony awards, some critics panned it because they were upset by the fact that the original story line had been replaced.

Now the team had a new goal: Keep the show alive long enough to prove it's worth taking on the road and performing in more cities and internationally.

Starting in early January, traditionally the worst ticket sales time for even hit shows, Yang's team began promoting a series of "Community Celebration Nights."

While his mainstream marketing counterparts had spent their media buying budgets in a frenzy to push awareness when the show first opened in the fall, Yang had held the majority of his budget in reserve for these harder times.

Now he loosened the purse-strings, running targeted campaigns in every Asian American media outlet he could find, as well as offers to the show's email newsletter readers.

"We ran broadcast and print ads saying 'We're celebrating the lunar New Year on Thursday and Friday nights throughout January and February.' All they had to do was use the coupon code to get a premium seat for $65."

"We needed to keep the show alive long enough that it would not be considered a total flop."

RESULTS

Flower Drum Song lasted until mid-March, and road show plans are actively underway for several cities including Dallas and San Francisco. A stunning 30% of Broadway tickets sold were to Asian Americans.

More details:

- 15 groups participated in the Community Preview nights, representing advance group sales of more than 1,800 seats and more than $180,000 in proceeds to charity.

- More than 3,000 consumers joined the show's newsletter list, most having learned about it virally from friends.

- The cast reported that the Community Preview and Community Celebration nights were their favorites because the audiences were so warmly appreciative. Especially near the end of the run, these nights helped boost cast morale and keep their energy positive.

Yang's advice for other marketers targeting the Asian American demographic, "People tend to think of special markets as luxuries like a cherry on your shortcake. That's silly. You have to ignore color and race and last name."

Instead he recommends classic database-marketing tactics, "If 30% of group X are responding and group Y are responding at a rate of 4%, where are you going to put your money? Group X. If you assume you should put more money into mainstream marketing because the mainstream is bigger, it may be a mistake. It's no use being bigger if they're not listening and not responding."

"Don't underestimate the power of a clearly defined and properly primed special market."

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